In an enterprise computing environment, for example, an office of a business, a number of personal computers, workstations, servers and the like, along with other devices such as mass storage subsystems, internal network interfaces, and external network interfaces, are typically interconnected to provide an integrated environment in which information may be generated, sent to and accessed from external sources, and shared among various users. Commonly, users perform a variety of operations including order receipt, manufacturing, shipping, billing, inventory control, document preparation and management, e-mail, web browsing, and other operations in which creation, access, and sharing of data is beneficial.
Currently, security is typically provided for an enterprise using a variety of different security products, and in particular including hardware and software solutions that operate at the perimeter, or “edge” of the enterprise network. These solutions commonly include firewalls, proxy servers, gateways, and the like which monitor traffic moving between the enterprise network and external networks such as the Internet.
Current edge devices typically scan and inspect incoming traffic for malware (i.e., malicious software such as viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, etc.) to thereby function to provide a zone of security around the enterprise. They can prevent users, for example, from downloading malware from the Internet or receiving malware in incoming e-mail. Sensitive or confidential data inside the enterprise (referred to collectively as “secure data”) can be protected by employing digital rights management (“DRM”) methodologies like digital signatures and watermarks that enable edge devices to block the data from being inappropriately sent outside the network perimeter.
While performing satisfactorily in many applications, these current security methodologies do not typically enable legacy secure data to be protected. In addition, such methodologies can be readily circumvented by a malicious user inside the enterprise who has the correct permissions to send secure data outside the network perimeter.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.